


A Mind's Cell

by i_i



Category: Altered Carbon, Ghost in the Shell, Original Work, Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy - Richard Morgan
Genre: Cyberpunk, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 23:04:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5604280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_i/pseuds/i_i
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you like this sort of stuff, you'll like it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mind's Cell

Anastasia looked up from her VR goggles, tears streaming down her face. A hideous noise going through her mind as she covered her ears. It was still there. The ghostly apparition which haunted her deepest nightmares. A small girl in a pale white nightshirt, and glowing red eyes stared up at her. Her head ballooning outwards. The room now seemed to grow so small as great globs of skin boiled up and fell off her face.

“Make it stop, make it stop!” Shouted Anistasia.

The ear-piercing the sound of ten thousand shards of glass grating between two sheets of steel surrounded the woman now writhing on the floor. Desperate lurching spasms brought a lamp crashing down and finally enveloped Anistasia Kashtinova in a quieting darkness.

Streaking neon globs of light passed behind Shadia's reflected face. The pneumatic taxi rumbled dangerously as it maneuvered through the twists and turns of the official lines.

“This better be good, I don't like being called out just to investigate another false lead.”

“You don't like being called out at all. You'd stay in bed all day if Leonardo hadn't gone missing.”

“Attend closely to the fact that there are no regulations prohibiting the attenuation of your terms of contract.”

Shadia sighed, the pneumatic taxi pulled into its stop. A straggling crowd spilled out onto the terminal entrance. A hoard of replacements was sucked in the tube before being sped on. Ankor and Ezekial were still arguing as they pushed through the crowd Shadia tailed close behind them.

“I'm just saying, listen, I'm just saying that you seem to put a lot of stock into this dog.” Ankor continued.

“It just seems, unreasonable, you see. For one canine to be worth so much bother. You got to get where I'm coming from, you see, it's not natural.”

“Ankor, you're job is not to fathom the mind of your master. It is to serve the will of your master. Understanding my intentions is no prerequisite to following my orders.”

They reached the flight of steps taking them to the street level. The concrete walls were completely covered with an intricate spiderlace of graffiti. An empty can of nutrient paste was wedged in between the railing and the wall, it's contents formed a puddle on the steps.

“Whatever takes your takes your fancy Ezzie. I'm just here to live out my sentence.”

The group stepped onto the main street. Large steel masses of tenement housing drifted by their vision. Sunlight filtered through linens set to dry off of 30th story windows. The shadow of the city's decaying infrastructure made it hard to determine the time of day. A group of children passed by, laughing.

Shadia turned towards Ezekial “So, where does our Anastasia live?”

Ezekial linked her the coordinates.

“Ah,” said Shadia looking at her display. “so just ahead and to the left. It's the 105th floor, so it should be about there.”

The elevator they entered looked like it could buy several amazonian rain forests.

“Floor 105” requested Shadia.

The elevator shook violently and Shadia was pressed into Ankor and Ezekial.

Ding!

The elevator opened on the 105th floor and a mass of black smoke rushed into the the compartment. Orange flames roared in the distance. Ankor rushed into the hallway of the apartment complex and turned into the room from which the smoke emanated.

“I'll give you three guesses as to Annie's apartment number.” he shouted back at the other two.

“Hey, do you hear that?” shouted Shadia.

“Yeah, it sounds like-” said Ezekial as he entered the flaming pit of a room.

BATA BATA BATA BATA

Rising and turning, the belly of a helicopter framed by the busted window. Hard metal blades cut into the atmosphere as Ezekial reached the edge of the hot, twisted remains of 105B.

He pulled out his rifle and loaded a tracking round. Looking through the scope at the ‘copter he aimed and fired.

Ptshaaa Ptshaaa Ptshaaa KA-TA!

Three rounds at the retreating vehicle. Shadia and Ankor hurried up behind him, the crackling of the fire overtook the fading sound of the the copter's blades. A desk teetering between the interior of the apartment and 1,600 feet of air tumbled flaming down into the streets below. People shouted and the distant wail of police sirens could be heard.

Ezekial pulled out a screen from his coat pocket. “Did it take?” asked Shaida.

Ezekial not looking up from his screen, “Yes, we have a lock on the ship, at least until they wise up and start jamming the signal.”

“Looks like it's heading towards the entertainment district.” Said Ankor “Lucky us, I've been looking for a vacation.”

Shadia walked by the twisted and melted forms welded into the interior of the apartment building. Circuits, steel, and papers all smoldered together in the blast furnace of an apartment and-

A body.

A crumpled form fused to a VR machine, entwined in a mess of glowing amniotic wires. It stank like a roast boar.

Shadia bent down to look at the face burned against the steel “I think I've found our client.”

Ank and Ezzie turn towards her in unison.

“Evidently, someone was very aware of Ms. Kashtinova’s movements.” Said Ezzie

“Think this the work of the ‘spirits’ she was talking of?” Said Ank

“I know one way to find out.” Said Shadia

 

Knolack walked about in confusion. The world around her morphed and flickered, leaves on trees cut into each other, people who passed her by stuttered twitched and spasmed. The summer sun screeched across an ascetic sky. Metal on metal; white on featureless blue. polygonal pigeons flitted in and out of existence.

She sat down on a water fountain in the middle of the square. No one noticed her no one paid her any mind. She was only trying to find her way home to return from the jittery flickering shadowlands. To synchronize with the world of the living.

Knolack wandered over to a constellation of patio chairs where a ring of humans reclined, a pulse of energy rapidly actuating a mouth which, like a stone thrown into calm water, cascaded a rapid rippling of emotions over the faces of the group, in turn triggering vibratory gesticulations and more inhuman spasming of the mouth. The flailing impulse passed from from human to human in the group until at last the energy dissipated and the social bonds which held the strange organism together dissolved. Those with less to gain evaporated off from the circle.

Knolack watched them disperse one by one and in her heart felt an aching longing to be more than an evanescent observer of human interaction. To join in actively with the life activities and rituals of her fellows.

Flying up to a fifth story bridge arcing across the east and west wings of the Viridi Memorial hospital. Leaning on the bridge, she wondered how long she could stay here, in the valley of death and remain human. How many had to die before she could return?

Below her, beneath the bridge eddies of people flowed around the massive crystalline skyscrapers. She resolved on it, she was going to directly confront the doctor himself about this. He had no right to do this to her, to release her irretrievably into the conscience of the public.

To impose her mind on others, someone has died because of his actions. He had made her a murderer and himself an accomplice to her crimes. Thus resolved, she turned to head toward the cybernetics branch of the medical facility. Melting through stuttering sliding glass doors, through the main lobby beneath two floors down a hallway into a door only to find-

Long white hair, blue eyes, alabaster skin materializing over branching nerves over bones before her eyes. The last strip of skin covering the head it turned to Knolack, eyes wide and screamed as if it caught sight of a ghost.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated! If you thought something was interesting, why not tell me?


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